Physics Frontier Center News

The JQI would like to congratulate Kena Allison, science teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy, who recently received a Milken Educator Award for her "commitment to teaching science." Called the "Oscars of teaching," the award comes with $25,000. PFC graduate student researcher Jeff Grover has been visiting Allison's classroom over the last few years, integrating physics demonstrations into her curriculum. Thurgood Marshall Academy is a D.C. Public Charter School located in the Anacostia region.

In this week’s issue of Nature Photonics scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (*) report the first observation of topological effects for light in two dimensions, analogous to the quantum Hall effect for electrons. To accomplish this, they built a structure to guide infrared light over the surface of a room temperature, silicon-on-insulator chip.

Peter Kordell, a UMD undergrad, was awarded the IPST Monroe Martin Prize for Undergraduate Research in Physics.

Unfortunately, qubits are fragile; they dissipate in the face of interactions with their environment. A new JQI semiconductor-based qubit design ably addresses this issue of qubit robustness.